Lady&#39;s undergarment



E. B. FERRlS LADYS UNDERGARMENT Dec. 29 1925- 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Dec.

Dee; 29 1925. ,5 ,7

E. B. FERRIS LADY S UNDERGARMENT Filed Dec. 15, 1922 2 Sheets-Sheet Patented D... 29, 1925'.

PATENT OFFICE.

ELIZABETH FERRIS, OF UTIGA, NEW YORK LADYS UHDEBiGAmNT.

Application filed December 18, 1922 Serial No. 808,747.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ELIZABETH B. FERRIs, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Utica, in the county of Oneida and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Ladies Undergar ments; and I do hereby declare that the fol lowing is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, which will enable others skilled in l the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompan ing drawings, and to the reference numera s marked thereon, which form part of this specification.

. My present invention relates to a ladys undergarment of the brassiere type and usually combining the brassiere with a vest or union suit.

The purpose of my invention is to provide an undergarment of the type described which is of new and improved construction and arrangement and which is also very simple in construction and comfortable and efficient in use.

of the class described which provides a brassire formed of along strip of flexible and relatively elastic material such as knitted material and to havethis strip act as a bindv er strip with itscentral portion extending across the bust and with its ends extending therebeyond about the back of the body an usually brought around to the front of the waist and'there detachably and adjustably connected. a

A still further urpose is to provide a garment of the sort a ove mentioned either combined'with and attached to a vest or union suit or provided with means for holding the upper edge of the central portion with sufficient security above the bust.

Fig. 1 is a plan view of a ladys undergarment embodying my invention in its preferred form, that is with the brassiere attached to the upper portion of a vest or union suit.

I Fig. .2 is a front perspective view of said garment in about the shape it would assume when in use and Fig. 3 is a similar rear perspective view of the same garment. V

Fig. 4 is a vertical sectional view through the front part of said garment before the brassiere has been brought backtight against the bust.

A further purpose is to provide a garment Fig. 5 is a plan View of a modified form of myinvention showing the brassiere not permanently attached to a vest or union suit but having its own .means for holding its top ed e up in place over the bust.

Fig. 6 is a perspective view of the garment shown in Fig. 5 about as it would appear in ,y

use. 2

Fig. 7 is a similar front perspective view of a further modified form of my invention being a separate brassiere as shown in Fig. 5 5, but having no straps but rather having separate means for holding the topv edge of its central portion to the upper portion -of the wearers vest or union suit.

Referring to the drawings in a more particular description and referring first to the form of the invention shown in Figs. 1 to 4 inclusive,'it will beseen that the garment includes a vest or union suit 10 preferably of knitted material having a pair of shoulder straps 11 and a brassiere 12. The brassiere proper is formed of a relatively long binder .strip 13 of about the shape and proportion shown in. Fi 1, that is having a central portion 14 wit opposite end portions 15 triangular in form, that is ta ering to a smaller size towards the extremitles 16 of the strip 13. To the extremitieslfi of the said strip are attached tie strings 17 conveniently formed of tape or other strong flat and relatively inelastic material.

The upper ed 18 of the central portion 14 of the vbrassiere is in this form of my invention permanently attached to the upper front edge or upper portion of the vest or union suit 10 as by turning the upper portion of said central dportion 14. over the top edge of said vest an sewing the parts together by a row of stitches 19. Conveniently this row of stitches may be located just below the upper edge. of the rment and so provide a run.- way through which the draw string 20 may extend about the entire upper edge of the combined rment with its ends extending out throng anv opening 21 in the front. 100

The slanting or tapering end portions 15 have their bottom edges 22 on a line with the bottom edge of the central portion 14 and the tapering formation is iproduced through the upper edge 23 of sai end portions 15 vslantin downwardly-as indicated in Fig. 1.

The inding strip 12 is formed of flexible transversely thereof, that is vertically and a limited amount of elasticity lengthwise, that is horizontally. This result is accomplished preferably and conveniently by forming the said strip of knitted fabric of the desired texture so as to have considerable elasticity transversely and a rather limited amount of elasticity lengthwise of the strip, that is horizontally. With knit-ted fabric of the ordinary structure this may be conveniently" accomplished by cutting the strip 13 length- Wise of the material, that is with the wales of the knitted fabric extending lengthwise of the strip and so horizontally or encircling the wearer. It will be-understood, however, that I do not limit my invention to this arrangement as it will be obvious that with some forms of knitted fabric there will be sufficient limitation of the stretch even across the wales of the fabric. The central portion 14 is of sufficient width to extend from above the bust to a line therebelow. In use the wearer will put on the vest or union suit and draw up the draw string 20 to draw in the top edge of the combined garment to the proper extent. As this garment will ordin'arily be used with a corset 25 the corset willthen be put on and fastened in place. Then the central portion 14 of the brassiere will be adjusted over the bust and will be stretched down as far as is necessary to cover the bust and ordinarily with the lower edge 24 of said portion 14 overlapping the top edge of the corset 25 with the said lower edge of the brassiere outside of the corset. Then the tapering portions 15 are extended about the body back underthe arms, crossed in the back and have their extremities brought around in front more or less at the waist line with said end portions then adjustably connected to each other by tying the tie strings 17 together with a suitable knot 26. As the garment is thus put on and fastened it will be adjusted and drawn back across the bu t to the desired extent to function as a brassiere. The considerable elasticity of the knitted fabric vertically allows the-garment to shape itself to the body to the desired extent while the much more limited elasticity of the fabric lengthwise of the strip 12 operates to hold or support the bust to the desired extent. It will be understood that the top and bottom edges of the barssiere are of substantially the same degree of elasticity as the body of said strip; in other words that the hem or binding of said strip is substantially as elastic as the body of the strip in order to avoid the effect of the edges being tight before the body of the strip has been drawn tight enough to perform its function.

In several of the drawings the garment is shown with the lower edge 24 of the central portion 14 spaced slightly above the extremities 16 and the tie strings 17 at the front. This arrangement and proportion of the garment will be a common one especiall with large or well developed people, but it will be understood that according to the size of the person and the relative proportioning of the width of the central portion 14 the lower edge 24 of said portion of the garment may be appreciably lower down so as to be really at the waist line and close to or underneath the tie string 17.

Means may be provided such as a strap 27 of tape attached near the lower edge of the central portion 14 of the garment to hold said lower edge down as by fastening said strap to the draw strings 17 by running said draw strings through the said strap.

It will be noted that this garment differs from the usual brassiere in that it has no darts, seams or other such method of fitting.

It depends entirely for its efliciency upon the fact that it is made of elastic material and out upon certain lines.

In the forms of my invention shown in Figs. 5 to 7 the brassiere is constructed as a separate garment not permanently attached to a vest or union suit. The construction, proportion and arrangement of this garment corresponds to that of the brassiere per se already described. In the construction shown in Figs. 5 and 6 in order to hold the upper edge of the central portion 14 in place above the bust a pair of longer shoulder straps as 11 are provided extending from the upper corners of the central portion 14 over the shouldeis to the upper edge of the corresponding tapering side pieces 15. This garment will be put on over the vest or union suit not shown and will be adjusted as already described for the brassiere. It will be noted that this form of garment may be readily used with any form'of vest or union suit including avest or union suit having a high neck either with or without sleeves.

In the form of my invention shown in Fig. 7 the separate brassiere is not provided with its own shoulder straps, but rather has means to detachably fasten the upper edge of the central portion 14 to the adjacent portion as the upper front edge of the separate vest or union suit shown in this drawing in dotted lines. Such means for detachably fastening the brassiere to the vest or union suit and so holding the brassiere up in front may be in the form of clips, snaps, hooks and eyes or even buttons and button holes as found most convenient.

I claim In a ladys undergarment the combination of a knitted vest or union suit and a long binder formed of a single flat strip of material, appreciably and uniformly elastic lengthwise, and of greater elasticity laterally, said strip having its upper edge intermediate its ends attached to the front of the vest or union suit above the bust and being there formed \vith'parallel top and bottom edges and of sufiicient width to reach below the bust, the ends of said strip decreasing in width and adapted to rem-l1 5 about the body and having the extremities of said strip adjustably connected at the front, said' flat binder being sufliciently non-elastic to support the body but beii'lg sufficiently elastic to shape itself somewhat to the body.

In Witness whereof I have affixed my signature, this 7th day of December 1922.

ELIZABETH B. FERRIS. 

